Ambassador, Permanent Representative of France to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Rome.
Career
Céline Jurgensen is a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (class of 2003, René Cassin). She joined the Quai d’Orsay in 2003, working in the Legal Affairs Directorate, where she was responsible for environmental issues and the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.
From 2008 to 2010, she was in charge of negotiations on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in the Strategic Affairs, Security and Disarmament Directorate. Her appointment to France’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations took her to New York from 2010 to 2012. In 2012, she joined the Ministry of Defence as Deputy Director for Strategic Affairs.
From 2014 to 2016, she was Deputy Director for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the Directorate for the United Nations, International Organisations, Human Rights and La Francophonie. In this capacity, she defines and develops France’s humanitarian strategy within international organisations. She took part in the first World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016, as part of the French delegation.
From 2016 to 2020, she was Director of Strategy at the Military Applications Division of the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA).
By decree dated 29 July 2020, Ms Céline Jurgensen was appointed Ambassador, Permanent Representative of France to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), the WFP (World Food Programme) and the IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development) with effect from 10 August 2020. She took up her duties on 15 August 2020. A career diplomat, she has held a number of multilateral posts in the fields of humanitarian affairs and security.
Alongside her professional activities, she has taught at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm) since 2016, as well as at the University of Paris II Panthéon Assas and the University of Aix-Marseille. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Thucydides Centre at the University of Paris II Panthéon Assas. She has published articles and a collective work.
She is a Knight of the National Order of Merit.
Publications
Jeangène Vilmer, Jean-Baptiste, and Céline Jurgensen. Imaginaires nucléaires. Representations of nuclear weapons in art and culture. Odile Jacob, 2021
Jurgensen, Céline, and Dominique Mongin. Resistance and Deterrence. From the origins of the French nuclear programme to the present day. Odile Jacob, 2018
